Norman Davidson worked in the forestry sector for decades as a forest worker, and eventually a District Manager for Forestry and Land Scotland, back when it was still known as Forestry Commission Scotland.
Since retirement, he has also been leading the team curating the website Forestry Memories, a unique archive hosting thousands of photos and documents from the past 100 years of forestry in Scotland (including the bulk of photos used on this website).
We spoke to Norman about his career, his work on the archive, and some of his favourite moments from the decades he spent working in the forests.
A forestry vehicle from the 1960s, such as Norman might have driven in his forestry days!
Tell us about your own involvement with forestry - when did you begin working in the forests, and what position did you enjoy the most?
My first experience in forestry was as a young forest worker on Atholl Estates in 1961. A small gang of us cycled five miles up the A9 to an open hill area near Dalnamine and planted trees there. I was very fortunate to have enjoyed the work, the experiences, and gaining knowledge in all of the locations that I worked - all in Scotland except for two years as a VSO forestry volunteer in Sierra Leone, in my very early days.
How did you get involved in collecting, curating and labelling the photos in the Forestry Memories archive?
In my later years as a District Manager, I became more aware of the sad lack of central archiving of the details, stories, names and exploits of all those who worked to shape Scotland’s forests as we see them today. In 2006 Gordon Urquhart, as part of a Social History of Forestry in Scotland project, initiated the website Forestry Memories. On hearing about it in 2007 (then retired), I offered to help out.
How many images are there in the archive in total, and how many more still to be catalogued?
Members of the WTC, better known as the ‘Lumberjills’, who worked in the forestry sector during WW1 and WW2.
Not entirely sure. There are over 4000 listed records, but each record can have a larger image and a document attached. If I am taking images of a report or story with 100 pages, those 100 images go onto the attached document. At a conservative estimate, there are probably over 10,000 images. The ones showcased here on your site are just the tip of the iceberg.
Who were the main contributors, and how did you first get them involved?
In the early days, we used to hold ‘forestry history open days’ for the public to drop in and have a chat. They would bring any photographs with a forestry connection that they or their families had stored away. These events were very successful, and we got some really unique images and stories.
Historians working on the book Voices of the Forest sourced many other photographs and stories. By far the most productive areas were my visits to older Forestry Commission offices, such as Fort Augustus and Glenbranter. Several back rooms and cabinets in these locations had not been cleaned out, and staff had managed to hold onto some great material going back to the 1920s and 30s.
Do you have a favourite memory from your own time in forestry?
Oh! That is a very difficult one. So many memories! One that does stick in my mind is of me sitting having my lunch on a hillside on a beautiful warm late spring day, overlooking Loch Shiel in Ardnamurchan. I had been watching an eagle when suddenly it dropped like a stone into a brown, bracken-covered clearing in the birch trees below me.
I heard a sharp squeal as the eagle tried to lift a little red deer calf that it had spotted lying sunning itself in dead bracken. Seconds later its mother came rushing out from the among the birch trees and hit the eagle, which managed to fly off but without the calf. I later saw the calf walk away a bit unsteadily with its mother.
The earlier the photos, the more challenging it must be to find the correct information about them - how did you approach the material from the first two world wars, and what was the biggest challenge?
Accurate information from this period is always difficult to find. First hand memories do not usually go back that far, but sometimes written notes are found. Usually the subject gives enough clues as to what is happening, while styles of clothing or machines set a time period.
Annual reports and the Forestry Commission’s Journals of Forestry are great sources of detail, as are the details on Forestry Memories itself. Often however, when the image is placed on the website readers come forward with details, which they share in the comments section. I have had information provides as long as 5-6 years after the original image was placed on the website. The comments are a very valuable, and a major resource on the Forestry Memories website.
A forester reviews a test-planting site at Culbin, circa 1950
Has the interaction from former foresters been as helpful as you hoped?
Old forestry history is not everyone’s cup of tea! But there are some who like me have a strong interest in ensuring that the stories are remembered — the stories of people who worked in and helped form Scotland’s forests and its timber trade. More help is always very welcome, as are more old forestry photographs and stories.
What help and input have Forestry and Land Scotland (formerly Forestry Commission Scotland) and the University of the Highlands and Islands offered to the site, so far?
Forestry Commission Scotland, along with the Scottish Forestry Trust, provided the funding for the initial Touchwood and Social History of Forestry projects from which the Forestry Memories website originated. UHI have been custodians of the site since its early days.
Many of the people in the earlier photographs are no longer with us - what do you think they would make of being included in the new 100th anniversary site, with a whole new generation seeing their pictures?
Indeed, many people have passed on, and I have since spoken to a number of family members regarding the placement of their late relatives’ photographs. Without exception they have said that they welcome the inclusion of the photographs on the 100th anniversary website, and said that their late family members would have been very proud and delighted to be able to show a little of how the early days of forestry were able to create such a valuable national resource.
Is there a particular favourite or favourites from the photographs you have collected?
My favourites are always those that show the early very forestry pioneers starting or working on planting the first forests in a distant glen or empty hillside. Those showing people working in forests whether planting, felling or sawmilling in the 1920s and 30s or earlier are rare photographs indeed, and always a pleasure to come across.